New Member, New Corvair Owner

[1st Corvair]

Hello everyone.

Purchased my first car on Bring a Trailer. A nice, resale red, 1965 Corvair Monza, for my wife.
I say it's resale red because it was butter yellow and the sell it right now red paint is starting to peel in several spots like the coweling.
Not a big deal at all. I got a decent price on the card and i didn't expect it to be as good as it is honestly.
Going in I knew the brakes need to be bled.
Turns out all the rubber hoses are rock hard and I'm shocked they've not snapped off yet. Again, not that shocked.
The part I'm having issues with is my son was able to open the trunk/hood and closed it, once.
I only know he was able to achieve this because he took a picture of it open and sent it to me while I was at work.
Ever since then, I've not been able to open it again.
Kinda makes it hard to bleed the brakes and it'd be nice to get in and poke around.
While the seller sent a set of new GM keys with the car, only the one original key to the car fits anything.
The ignition is GM's high security model of the '60's and 70's. That's to say, as long as someone doesn't have anything close to a butter knife or say, a key to ANY other car, you're safe. Matter of fact, I was able to press my thumb against the key hole real hard and turn the lock. Good times.
But, right now I need any advice on how to get in this trunk without jacking things up. The new GM keys are the wrong kind. I think the seller is probably looking for these for one of his other cars right now. They don't fit anything even remotely close.

Supper glad to be here with you all and look forward to diving in head first to the deep end of being a Corvair owner.

Cheers!

Karl & Carol

[2LZ]

My '65 Corsa came with no keys so I had to access the lock numbers to get replicas made from the fine members here.

I went in through the driver's side headlight bucket, per advice I got here. Then you undo the two 7/16(?) bolts that hold the latch. Only took about 15-20 minutes.

[American Mel]

Sometimes, pressing down on the hood while turning the key will help unlock the trunk.
Otherwise, yeah, go through the headlight bucket hole.
By the way,.....
WELCOME TO CORVAIR FORUM ! ! !

[1st Corvair]

Sounds like I get to go threw the hole. Lol

I tried pushing, pulling, wedging side to side.
No luck. Thanks for the inside info....

[RexJohnson]

I would try alittle lube in the lock before taking out the headlights. You know it will open so I would lube and then wiggle and giggle the key while pushing down on the lid.

[Phil Dally]

This one?

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1965- ... t-coupe-2/

[1st Corvair]

Yup, that one. Familiar?

[1st Corvair]

I would try alittle lube in the lock before taking out the headlights. You know it will open so I would lube and then wiggle and giggle the key while pushing down on the lid.

Been there. Lubed that. Banged it. Bumped it. Talked to it. Even promised it things. No dice.

[66vairguy]

Sometimes the hood bracket is far enough off center that it will bind on the latch frame. Have someone hold the key turned and then CAREFULL pry on the hood to see if it will open. Not saying that is your issue, but worth a try.

Picture indicate a four carburetor 140HP engine. Not that common with the automatic Powerlide.

When you have time find the engine number and it will tell if the engine was original 140HP Powerglide as they were different than the 140HP engines used in manual stick shift cars.

[gbullman]

Not sure I’m understanding the whole initial post correctly. 65 and up have 2 keys; hex key for doors and ignition, round / oval for trunk and glove box. If you are unable to turn the trunk key, the glove box should have the same lock for getting a key made.

If you can turn the trunk key then something may just be hanging up and you need to use some strategic force to get the trunk to open.

Of course after almost 60 years no guarantees the original locks are still in place.

[Frank DuVal]

Right, Gary, 65 to 69 Corvairs are two key cars. For 65 to 68 the ignition matched the doors, octagonal head, and the glove box matched the trunk with the pear head key. In 1969 GM went to the bigger head keys, with ignition/door being rectangular and the trunk/glove being oval. After a few years even the aftermarket key suppliers stopped making the 67 (A,B) and 68 (C, D) key blnaks with the octagonal and pear heads. But, I do have some of the correct head keys and can cut them to code for the 67 and 68 cars. Why did GM go to the larger head keys in 1969? Because they needed a good match for the steering column lock! All their vehicles got the steering column lock except the Corvair (last year, no redesigning) .

Back to the OP, yes you should have both pear head and octagonal head keys, unless someone made them wrong years ago, or a locksmith made it a one key car, yes that is possible by re-keying the trunk and glove box to match the ignition. But, highly, really highly, unlikely, unless the car was owned by a locksmith in the past.

I am one of the guys on here that can supply code cut keys on either B&S (yes, the small engine people made GM locks for years, like since the 20s) blanks or aftermarket blanks.

The ignition is easy to get the code if the key works. The 65 trunk lock code is stamped on the cylinder, which you can get once you remove the grille bar (holds the lock) after the trunk is open.

Hope this helps.

[doug6423]

[jimbrandberg]

Have you had the son with the magic touch have a go at it again?
Jim Brandberg
Isanti, MN
CorvairRepair.com

[RexJohnson]

I have a fairly original '68 and it has the newer large headed keys?

[1949chevy]

I had Frank make the keys for a 64 Corvair conv. he made a few sets of keys for me and they worked great...and he is very fair in his price. You cannot go wrong having Frank make up your keys.

By the way, I put some graphite in a trunk lock on my 66, and then the key would NOT OPEN the lock after working fine...just trying to do some good for the lock...that was WRONG. Had to clean out the lock of the graphite and then it started working again. Lesson learned.

Jimmy in NC

[1st Corvair]

So I pulled the headlight sub-assemblies out of both sides. Unless you're talking about removing the entire headlight bucket, which means breaking factory seam sealer, there's no way into the trunk. I'm not about to break that seam sealer for anything short of a full restoration.
Kinda glad I went down this rabbit hole. Good excuse to use the 0000 steelwool to remove all of the overspray from the bezzles and bulbs. Actually looks like we've got two original bulbs and two newer bulbs. All of which are working at the moment.

Keys.
I went through things again this morning and it seems none of the keys we have work on anything. The original key I have, on the upper left turns the ignition but like I said, anything will. My somewhat local locksmith cut copies of that key, on the right. Hope he can make things fit those keys. I dropped the glove box cylinder out of the lid. Not seeing any numbers on there. There's a number on the latch part but I doubt that's what I need.

The keys on the bottom are the "New" style and don't fit anything on the car at all.


I need to refer back to the books I've purchased on the Corvair regarding where the engine tag is but I thought it was one of these found in the engine compartment.